Wales’ Ellen Randall lets you zoom right in on her delicate works. She has a steady hand and a deft touch that position each stem and leaf and dot in its rightful place on her earrings. Not many of us can achieve such neatness.
Luckily there’s room for us more ham-handed, slap-dash types. “It takes all kinds,” as they say.
Still, Ellen’s steady small compositions reassure us that perfection still exists in a very imperfect world.
Talk about a statement necklace! This piece from California’s Phil Porter (philporterartjewelry) is unabashedly dramatic.
It makes a chin up, shoulders back, look-at-me entrance. Juicy colors, nested spikes, and tubes of dots wrapped up with a flourish of curly tendrils. Let the party begin.
It’s Friday and Phil’s necklace arrives just in time for our Saturday party over at StudioMojo. Mojoers scoured the hottest studios and the coolest shows to start the summer with color and surprise. Join the party.
Australia’s Heidi Helyard’s smooth droplets of bright colors poke up through perfect holes in a heavily textured white circle of clay.
A fantastic volcanic eruption? The mischievous imaginings of a happy child bubbling up? A clever girl fooling around?
Heidi’s simple pendant doesn’t rely on her clay skills. It leans on whimsy and spirit and fun.
Oregon’s Lea Gordiner (jibeaux) has fussed and fiddled with this dog sculpture and she may not be done yet.
She gave the head a plaintive twist and sealed the deal with a ready leash. Lea knows her dogs. Dressed and ready. Who could refuse?
You can see how Lea pondered every move in her work-in-progress shots on Instagram.
StudioMojo will look at lots of ideas being formulated, trends emerging, works-in-progress this week. That’s not to say you have to follow the crowd. In fact, we urge the opposite. Join us to see why.
It’s not just the sculpting that draws us into this curvaceous mermaid from Virginia’s Christine Harris. The watery purples, aquas, and blues pull us underwater and into her world of sea creatures.
Christine is a convert to CosClay polymer. Bask in the glamor and drama of her sculpts.
Ron Lehocky made this bevy of bowls after Lindly’s recent class in Kentucky. It’s comforting to know that even after he’s made 50,000 hearts, he still needs to practice just like the rest of us. Amazing!
Do your fingers need to wrestle the clay before you can you’re certain that a concept has lodged itself securely in your noggin?
No matter how many pages of instructions I have, my fingers insist on fumbling through the twists and turns.
Ron’s an overachiever, as you can see. I’ll consider myself a star if I can come away from Lindly’s Columbus class in October with a fraction of that. We have a few seats left! Come play with us.
See what outrageousness and oddities we’ve scooped up for this Saturday’s StudioMojo. Keeping up with our art medium is always surprising and fun.
Minnesota’s Sherstin Schwartz (lifeofapaintbrush) notes that some viewers may recognize her latest creation as very Fordite-like. That’s what they named the paint slag chipped from the paint booth walls of various automotive plants in the 40’s.
Sherstin prefers to think of her undulating and swirling polymer layers as alien agate.
She’ll probably turn them into flowers (that’s what she does) but you may see undulating layers of stone or picture the residue from a paint booth in Detroit. Enjoy them in their natural state.
Georgia’s Cynthia Gougian-Fisher can’t resist new technology. That doesn’t mean she’s leaving polymer behind.
She cut these wooden earring frames on a laser cutter and then gave them pattern, color, and shine by inlaying polymer. Lots more on Instagram.
In this week’s StudioMojo you’ll watch Texas’ Paula Kennedy hand sand her bowls to a smooth, satiny finish. And you’ll learn how shoe paste wax and face cream are part of her brilliant process.
I’ve been gaga for polymer-covered sticks for years. Mine are more slapdash than these carefully covered twigs from Detroit’s Linda-Velas-Helton.
Scraps, a schmear of liquid clay as glue, tiny cane bits, lots of this and that add up to a glorious trip down memory lane. The wood will tolerate the heat but you may have to use a big oven.
Before you know it, you have a bouquet of past projects to display and decorate your home. Isn’t it amazing how a theme, a palette, an aesthetic emerge from all those diverse projects?
